Page 20 of Xefe (Nozaroc Alien Warrior #1)

A black and gold dirt cloud permeated the tunnel. The ear-piercing hoots told me exactly who’d be joining me. The noise bounced off the ashy surface of the mountain walls, and a primate army descended, ready to destroy.

I scrambled to my feet, balancing the baby in my hands. Even in sleep, he refused to let go of my thumb and occasionally took a quick lick of the blood still coating my palms. “Wake up, little buddy. You need to explain that I was trying to help.” I rubbed my finger over his warm fur.

“ Baby. Screech, Save, save, saaaave. ”

Who said that? I swung around, convinced there must be a camera and microphone somewhere. Or else a stalker was hiding in the fronds.

I backed up, but I couldn’t move fast enough. I was surrounded. “Hey, I come in peace. He’s okay. Look.”

“ Give baby. Screech. Give baby. ”

It was them! The pangos’ language. Of course, I understood them.

I understood everybody, but I never considered my gift would include animals.

The pangos stopped short of clawing my eyes out.

Like a living, breathing tornado, they flew by and around me, surrounding us as I clutched the sleeping baby in my arms.

“Here’s your baby.” I crouched slowly and tried to lower him to the ground. But the little shit wouldn’t let go of my thumb. Let go, pangito.

The whirling dervish settled. About thirty or so pangos were in front of me, behind me, and attached to the fauna growing on the tunnel walls. My legs were quaking, even though they looked adorable . Many of them wore crowns of flowers in their hair or pieces of brightly colored material.

It was possibly the cutest thing I’d ever seen.

Slowly, I settled back down and sat cross-legged, holding the baby in front of me. I leaned forward as far as I could go, so they could see he was okay.

One of the biggest of the bunch roared and bared his tiny but pointy teeth.

He wasn’t much bigger than a small dog, but his canines looked sharp.

He had three on each side of his cute mouth.

He also wore a crown of golden leaves. Clearly the leader, he screamed and hopped up and down. “Stole. Bad, bad. No-wing. You bad.”

Holy shit. I really can understand him.

That meant if I put my mind to it, they would understand me, too. Eventually. What am I worried about? I could talk my way out of any situation. This would be a piece of cake. Maybe if I repeated it enough, I’d actually believe it.

I smiled, and the head pango reared back. Oops, more anti-smile-ers. What is wrong with everybody around here? They all hate joy. I snapped my lips shut and let the hoots and cries wash over me. I absorbed the rhythm and mimicked the sounds of the words I could make out.

“ No bad. No steal baby ,” I hooted while watching the leader’s eyes go wide in reaction to my words. Apparently, King Pango understood me.

Unfortunately, my translation seemed to enrage him. He jumped even more, bellowing out, “ You hurt baby. Attack, attack. ”

“No, no.” I thought about what they had said. I pointed at myself, trying to remember what he’d called me. “ No-wing? ”

The pangos settled immediately.

I rubbed Baby’s head and said, “ Baby. No hurt. ”

A slow rumble rushed through the group, echoing and bouncing off the cave walls. My only interpretation… Holy shit.

I pointed at myself again. “ No-wing, no steal. Give baby. You. ” I tried to move the little guy off my palm, but he clung tighter. His breathing seemed stronger. “Wake up, pangito,” I whispered in English. I think.

King Pango raced forward and tapped the baby on the head a little too forcefully for my liking.

“Hey, don’t—”

“ Hooooooot! ” The baby reared up and screamed bloody murder. He then rubbed his adorable eyes, hissing at the king while licking the last bit of blood from my palm.

I thought for sure the king would freak out on Baby, but he began to coo. I didn’t have a translation for it in my head.

The baby tittered and hopped up and down in my arms. Then he pointed at my hands. “ Drink. ”

Or maybe it meant blood? The translation was vague, and my mind offered several interpretations. I must have translated it wrong. Why would he—

“ Blood? ” The king rushed me and grabbed my palm. His sharp incisor bit down on the fleshy part of my thumb.

“Son of a bitch .” I reared up and flicked King Pango off my hand. He flew back, and his tiny wings fluttered, supporting his roly-poly body. He bobbed in front of me as his wings fought gravity.

So, stinkin’ cute! I hoped I didn’t have to take him out, but I would if he kept nibbling on me. “Stop biting me!” I braced myself, ready for the onslaught of pangos. It was one thing to feed a baby but quite another to become some alien primate’s lunch. “I don’t like it. No bite! ”

The king flew through the air, grabbed a vine, and swung back in front of me. “ Blood. ” All of the pangos chanted. “ Blood. Blood. Blood. ”

Baby raced up my arm, resting on my shoulder and burrowing into my hair. “ Mama ,” he hooted.

“Oh, no. No, no, no. I am not your mama.”

The king threw up his hands. “ Mama! ” Every pango repeated his words while he licked his lips greedily. After the chants settled down, he walked over and sort of shimmy-bowed and patted my leg. “Mama. Sit. Hoot. Sit, mama.” He patted the ground. “ Sit. Safe. No blood. ”

“ No blood? ” I balled my fists but eventually acquiesced. I was exhausted—tired to my core. I had failed in every mission I’d set out to accomplish today. I wanted a win.

Yeah right. What would you win? A bunch of baby pangos, mamacita?

Maybe. But I sat, and the pangos swarmed, touching my arms and legs. Baby had a field day, running into their arms but never traveling far from me. They screeched and hooted. I didn’t pay attention until they kept repeating one word. Snack? Or maybe it was lunch.

A cute little furball pango fluttered over with her silky wings and tugged at my hair. I didn’t shoo her away, but I repeated, just in case, “No blood.”

She tittered and hooted. “ Snack. ” Her tiny hands ran through my hair. It felt heavenly.

I let my lids droop and muttered, “Sure. What do I care? Go get yourself a snack.” At this point, I no longer knew what language I spoke.

But instead of leaving, she and a few other girl pangos—I knew this because they didn’t have any dangly bits hanging around—attacked my knotted locks. They sifted and untangled—the whole time tossing tiny yellow eggs onto the dirt floor.

The alien lice. As soon as a pango tossed one out, another would rush forward and pop it in their mouth.

First, the king, and then the baby. One by one, the others followed.

Maybe by order of importance? Whatever it was, it was quite precise.

I even got to see a few other baby pangos, not that they would get too close.

They were so cute, huddled in their mamas’ arms, a few sucking on their boobs.

With those sharp teeth. Ouch.

After a few minutes, the itch that had been a constant, never-ending thorn in my side disappeared. The bugs were gone. I hope. “Thank you so much.” A few tears leaked down my cheeks.

Baby immediately licked them off my cheeks.

Gross.

Before I could figure out how to live with the pango tribe forever, they fluttered their wings in unison, creating a terrifying buzzing sound.

“Earther!” Loxo’s voice boomed through the tunnel. “I know where you are. My First will be furious when he learns you escaped me. Come back. Now!”

Shit. Normally, I wouldn’t care about what he wanted, but what if he got mad enough that the other Loxo showed?

I scrambled to my feet and shooed the pangos out of the way. “Gotta run. Thanks for the help with my hair. I’ll put the word out. For sure. You have a business card? No? Okay, move, please. I have to go.”

King Pango cocked his adorable head to the side. “ He bad spikes? ”

“The warriors? Bad? Yeah, sort of. They’re after me. I have to try and return. Back to my prison cell.” My jumbled words were a mix of pango and English. I hoped they could guess what I meant.

“ Help? You? ”

“ Yes, help. Please. ” I hooted and Baby scurried up my shoulder.

The pangos moved as one, swarming down the tunnel, eventually passing by the sharp turn I’d run through. I stopped and looked into the pitch-black passageway. “I’m supposed to go this way.”

“ No. Danger. Here. ” They flew out of sight.

Only Baby and I were left behind. Deciding they hadn’t let me down so far, I followed and my next step dropped me in a gooey hole.

A portal! The air was snatched from my lungs.

I pulled Baby off my shoulder and clutched him in my arms. I fell into a familiar void where voices whispered in my ear, tugged at my hair, repeating, Danger.